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Nothing
can be more irresponsible than the statement of Trade
Secretary Peter Favila, former banker and stock-exchange
head, that texting must be taxed because text messages
are mostly nonsense.
According to Favila, senseless messages must be
discouraged and must be taxed because they are
unproductive and are often sources of rumors.
Favila
doesn’t probably send text messages, because, why should
he? He could be one of the many numerous government men
who spend millions of pesos at the expense of taxpayers
who can only afford abbreviated messages and not lengthy
cell-phone conversations high public officials resort
to, unmindful of the cost.
There
must be other reasons why text messages must be taxed
and make them costlier so that the government may derive
more revenues so that its officials can buy more
state-of-the-art cellular phones, purchase expensive
cars for themselves or, if something more is still left,
money to service the trillion pesos in government debts.
There
must be other reasons, but surely, it must not be for
the purpose of abridging the freedom of speech or of
expression embodied in Section 4 of the Philippine
Constitution.
Sending
senseless text messages is one of these rights even if,
in the sense of Favila, they are just rumors or
unproductive endeavors of changing the vocabularies of
Filipino texters.
And who
are we to judge whether a text message is senseless or
sensible? Only the texter has the right to determine
whether or not a message is without sense, unless Favila
wants to pay for the P1 text of the anonymous texter.
In this
regard, voice messages of government officials,
including Favila, must also be subjected to taxes in
their own personal accounts and not of the government.
Every voice message coming from government officials
must be scrutinized to find out whether it is sensible
or is just for entertainment.
Sen. Mar
Roxas II, chairman of the committee on trade and
commerce and called “Mr. Palengke” by his supporters,
considers text messages as a daily-life necessity and
not, in the words of Favila, a senseless expression.
Favila
should consult his market vendors to find out the
popularity of his proposal to tax text messages. Most
market vendors are texters, and they need those messages
to monitor market prices and the movement of Favila
whenever he threatens to raid stall owners suspected of
overpricing or violating the price laws.
Has the
Finance secretary forgotten that overseas Filipino
workers—the “bagong bayani [new heroes]” who help keep
the economy afloat with their remittances that reached
$12 billion last year—have text messaging as the easiest
and cheapest way of communicating with their family back
home and keeping themselves sane?
Favila
must also review his accomplishments, if any, as a
secretary of trade and industry, and ask himself why the
exporters are revolting or why farm producers are hardly
protected whenever he goes to attend international World
Trade Organization conferences to fight for their cause.
Senate
President Manny Villar Jr., who also was a wet-market
vendor during his lean years, says the proposal to tax
texts “defeats the purpose of protecting the public from
the ill effects of the spiraling cost of oil products as
it entails additional burden to the people.”
The
Favila proposal that is also being supported by the
Department of Finance, as usual, is half-baked, says
Villar, and is probably meant to abridge the freedom of
expression.
Villar
says it can be viewed as a design to stop the use of
cell phones in spreading text messages critical to the
administration where Favila is part.
E-mail: raulbvalino@yahoo.com.ph |
